(2012)  Page(s) 70.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Ann Turner'. Described by Ken Nobbs in his registration paper in 1984 as lavender pink, 'Ann Turner' is another rambler from 'Thornfree Wonder' and 'Veilchenblau'. It is 100% thorn free with a little tendency to mildew but has the benefit of being highly fragrant. With over 20 blooms per cluster and many petals per bloom, it would be a lovely sight rambling over fences and up trees. We had thought that it was another lost rose, but a small plant was found growing at Kauri Creek Nursery. 'Ann Turner' is protected for now, but not yet available commercially. It has also been called 'Mrs. Nathaniel Turner'.

(2012)  Page(s) 67.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Anne Chapman'. There is very little in the written record from Ken Nobbs of the rose 'Anne Chapman', but its registration paper does still exist. It's possible that the rose did not survive, although in Ken's planting at Te Kauwhata there is a rose that matches the description of 'Anne Chapman'. This is another of my educated guesses and I hope that I am right for I would very much like an 'Anne Chapman' in my garden. Like Thomas and his pears I would take her with me from place to place. The rose was bred in 1984 from 'Thornfree Wonder' and 'Veilchenblau', and is a pale pink, with some petals having darker splotches. Ken notes on his paper that some have a white edging, and some a white longtitudinal stripe through the petal. The flowers are 4 centimetres across with 29 petals, and 8 or more flowers per cluster. If it's like its missionary siblings, it is a strong, healthy and vigorous rambler.

(2012)  Page(s) 92.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Betsy Broughton'. This is another of Ken Nobbs' lost roses. With unknown parentage, but probably a cross between a rugosa seedling and Rosa moyesii. It is described as being like a spinosissima with tiny fern like leaves. It is recorded as being bred in 1984. The flowers are small, single and cupped and a blush pink. It has a short spreading habit growing to a metre high, and flowers from October to early December.

(2012)  Page(s) 121.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Beverley Anne'. Her rose has a confused history. Although Ken, in an article 'New Old Roses for Heritage Folk', says this rose is a fortuitous seedling of 'Tausendschon' with fragrant lavender-pink blooms in clusters, the registration papers says something entirely different. He cites its breeding as unknown and unknown, and Ken has placed it in the red-purple group of the colour chart. It is double, opens flat; with blooms borne in sprays of three to seven. It has a slight fragrance, dwarf habit and flowers from October to June or July. The photo available shows a rambling rose with pale pink, semi-double blooms which fade to white. There is also a notation in a different hand on the form which says it is lolly-pink with a white centre. Interestingly the registration paper is signed by a Justice of the Peace, with the notation 'inspected and confirm data J.S. Kidd J.P 20-11-86'. None of his other registration papers have such a notation and I wonder what prompted it. In another letter to Margaret Hayward in 1987, Ken writes: "Another rose I have registered as 'Beverley Anne', a fortuitous seedling of 'Tausendschon' which has even a longer flowering season than D.M. ['Daughter Margaret'] as has flowered right through the winter. Beverley Anne'is a daughter-in-law." 'Beverley Anne' flowers in Te Kauwhata and in Margaret's garden.

(2012)  Page(s) 52.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Charlotte Kemp' is a classic Ken Nobbs rambler, from the stable of 'Thornfree Wonder' and 'Veilchenblau'. Bred in 1985 it is thornless, free flowering and healthy. The blooms are single, soft violet-purple, slightly incurved, and hang in clusters on a vigorous rambler. The blooms are small, barely 6 centimetres in diameter, with five to seven blooms per cluster. Ken describes the colour as 'wild violet' on his registration form. Its growth is lax with foliage of mid-green. It is a vigorous, and healthy rose - one of six that we grow in our smaller garden at our historic house in Otaki. 'Charlotte Kemp' is probably unavailable outside New Zealand, but it's one of several Ken Nobbs' roses that grow at the Trinity Farm Nursery and Garden in Otaki as part of the conservation of our heritage and the heritage of roses.

(2012)  Includes photo(s).
 
p117. 'Daughter Margaret'. In a letter to Margaret Hayward, author and rose fancier, in 1987 Ken said of 'Daughter Margaret': "I have always felt attracted to R. chinensis 'Mutabilis', a tall shrub China rose with floppy multi-coloured blooms which die off dark instead of fading out as most China roses will do. Last year I got one or two miniatures, one of which is worth keeping as, like its seed parent, it has several colours in the double blooms and is only a few inches tall. Like 'Mutabilis' it is very floriferous. One of the seedling plants from this source has for two seasons in a row flowered from November till the end of May without a break. I have kept a record of this carefully and it is unique. I have registered it as 'Daughter Margaret', my only much loved daughter."

p118. Photo. Ken commented of the rose 'Daughter Margaret' that it is "the only rose I have ever seen that begins to flower in November usually with double peach fragrant blooms without a break until early June." In his registration paper Ken describes it as a China from 'Mutabilis', with 'Cornelia' as the probable pollen parent. this is an interesting breeding from a rosarian's perspective as 'Cornelia' is a Hybrid Musk rose with a tall habit and is often grown as a small climber, while 'Mutabilis' is single and various shades of pink. 'Daughter Margaret' shows none of the characteristics of either parental rose. 'Daughter Margaret' is a soft apricot pink, small growing and a quite fragile growth habit. Both 'Cornelia' and 'Mutabilis' I would describe as 'thugs'. However the advised breeding of this rose is not gospel. In another newsletter in 1985 he describes the breeding of 'Daughter Margaret' as from 'Mutabilis' and 'Cecile Brunner'. This, to me, seems a more likely cross than 'Cornelia and 'Mutabilis', simply because of the shape of the bud and bloom. Whatever its breeding, it's certainly a lovely rose with a very long flowering period. It is small and twiggy in the style of the China rose, but its flowers delight the eye with its subtle charm of blush apricot pink fading to white. It has a slight fragrance.

(2012)  Page(s) 13.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Dinah Catherine'. 1984, named after the Halls' daughter...... a climbing polyantha with red-purple clusters of flowers, the blooms fading to white at the outer petals. It is a lax grower......and will be available commercially shortly.

(2012)  Page(s) 13.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Dinah Hall'. Released in 1985, 'Dinah Hall' is a rambler with unrecorded parentage....
'Dinah Hall' grows gloriously in many northern gardens. Ken notes record that there is a plant at Kemp House in Kerikeri behind the Loquat tree, but I could not see it there. He also notes other planting along the fences at the wool scourers, at the Viticulture Centre and at St. John's cemetery in Parramatta, New South Wales...... In a letter to Ken in 1990 giving him permission to name his roses after her ancestors, Thelma Hall says......

(2012)  
 
p41. 'Elizabeth Colenso'. Ken Nobbs describes this rose as 'a remarkable rose of extraordinary independence' and ti is aptly named. A seedling from 'R. chinensis Mutabilis', it has single blooms of sulphur yellow, which change and darken with age much in the manner of 'Mutabilis'. It has been described by Ken as a frequent bloomer well into the winter. Ken had a terrible habit of renaming roses and I have been unable to find the registration papers for either 'William Colenso' or 'Elizabeth Colenso', except that among his papers are some handwritten notes indicating that William was now Elizabeth. It is believed to have been bred in the mid-1980s. Ken had suggested 'Elizabeth' be planted in a commemorative garden at St. Margaret's Anglican Church, Auckland and the vicarage next door. It may still be there flowering independently in the spirit of Elizabeth, but alas, I had suspected that this was another lost beauty as I did not discover it in my travels to the far north. However, it was recently re-discovered growing through a cypress tree at St. John's College, Auckland. Margaret Williams, Ken's daughter, wrote in December 2011 'I looked closely at the garden behind the Paterson Building at St. John's College this week and found to my delight a very precious rose still growing there. It is the 'William Colenso' rose, growing up through a conifer under the shade of a shelter tree. It has grown into a standard and been cropped at the top. It is a sad specimen, but the only one we know of so please, please keep it until we can take budwood or cuttings. It has a pale single flower.' The plant has been left because they could not get at it because of the conifer surrounding it. It is growing in shade so has a pale cream flower, but original landscaping plans confirm that it is definitely 'William Colenso'. A single cutting from this found rose survives in my garden, saving it from extinction.

p109. 'The Active'. A seedling from R. chinensis 'Mutabilis' and a sister seedling to 'Elizabeth Colenso'. Ken describes this rose in his registration form as having single sulphur-yellow blooms. Our experience is different and is of a rose with golden buds opening to pale apricot blooms which rapidly fade to white.....

(2012)  Page(s) 33.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Eliza Bedggood'. This is another rambler from 'Thornfree Wonder', possibly crossed with 'Sparrieshoop'. Described by Ken as lavender pink with a white centre and few if any thorns, it is summer flowering. Its flowers are small, with about 28 blooms per cluster. Today it would be described as semi-double with 15 petals per bloom. He was proud enough of this rose to offer them for sale at the Bedggood family reunion in 1986, where he offered them at $10 per plant with 50% going to the Church Missionary Society or some other charity. I had never seen the rose, but the wonders of the internet put me in touch with the Bedggood family still farming at Te Waitmate. There I was able to photograph the rose, but it was towards the end of the season so I was unable to assess its full glory.